In a move that will have T-Mobile customers screaming “we had it first,” Verizon Wireless looks set to introduce “VZ Edge,” their own early upgrade plan for customers. In simple terms, Verizon will allow customers to upgrade their devices more often to “stay on the leading edge of technology.”

The boys at Droid-Life got their hands on a slide right out of a Verizon training session highlighting customers ability to upgrade to a new device at any time, once they have paid off 50% of their current phone. As a pre-cursor, Verizon customers have to be on the company’s new payment plan system that allows payments spread out over a 12-month period. Unfortunately, most of the details about this plan aren’t available but with the information on the loose it won’t be long before Big Red puts it all on the table.

To say that Verizon’s plan doesn’t conjure up thoughts of T-Mobile’s JUMP! program would be putting it mildly and given the timing it’s unlikely Verizon managed to come up with this in the 5 days following T-Mobile’s announcement. However, even with the “VZ Edge” plan you can’t ignore Verizon’s high pricing and still more rigid company policies overall.

About David Beren

David is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TmoNews.com. He considers himself a Jedi Knight, capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound and a connoisseur of fine cell phones. He has been involved in the wireless industry since 2003 and has been known to swap out phones far too many times in any given year. Should you wish to contact him, you can do so: david@tmonews.com.

I see “no service contract” as part of the list of customer benefits. Could VZW finally be allowing its LTE network off-contract to devices other than the third and fourth gen iPad?

A benefit to Verizon on this is that they’ll be hitting their stride on Edge just as their AWS LTE deployment heats up. Faster upgrade cycles for users who want them will go a long way toward offloading the original (700MHz) LTE network onto AWS and eventually PCS bands…I’m guessing there’s a direct correlation between high-end device users who want the latest and greatest and high data users.

100

Verizon is already so expensive though. Charging even more for something is such a rip off for their customers.

jay

Who would have thought the day would come when other companies are following little ol T-Mobiles moves.. T-Mobile setting the market baby.. Can’t wait for the next phase

Richard

LOL…

S. Ali

Verizon phones should be free, given how much they charge.

Scott

You’re paying for overall superior coverage, plain and simple. If you don’t want or need that, then be glad T-Mobile exists.

S. Ali

Not really, you are subsidizing the cost of towers in tiny towns you will never visit. Why pay double for coverage in rural Oklahoma if you live in a populated city? MOST people live in a large market. You’re just paying someone else’s bill on Verizion and ATT.

Scott

Tiny towns YOU will never visit. Hence my statement “if you don’t want or need that.” If you don’t get out much, and don’t visit friends or family in the many fringe suburbs and exurbs of the United States, it’d be foolish to pay for what you don’t use.

Hell, there’s plenty of “tiny towns” within a couple hours drive of where I live that it’d be foolish NOT to visit since they are located in, or serve as gateways to, the most breathtaking scenery in the continental US, and Verizon is the only consistently reliable carrier in many of them.

macman37

Seeing how both Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile fare very well normally in Customer Service over the last 2 decades according to Consumer Reports’ Mobile Phones Reviews, it’s no surprise to me that one would follow the other when one sees and hears that the other has a great plan. Yes, their prices are at opposite ends of the pole in most consumers’ eyes, but their retention rate is very high. Too bad the opposite is very well known when it comes to AT&T and Sprint – horrible, spotty coverage and poor customer service.

TruthSleuth

It won’t be long before Verizon changes their color scheme from red to magenta, gets a catchy jingle, and hires an attractive woman to ride around on a motorcycle wearing leather pants.

And then they’ll claim to be pioneers. Go figure. Imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery.

steveb944

Considering that Verizon is coming with this, I can almost bet that AT&T will produce a similar concept to match.

Nick

They already have! They are calling it AT&T Next.

Jay J. Blanco

Follow the leader of innovation VZ. Lol

http://knightofscorpio.tumblr.com/ DtheArtist

These companies are always pretending like they’re not afraid of, or better yet “don’t see T-Mobile as competition”, but they’re also always so quick & willing to copy their efforts. Oh…

I just saw an artical that AT&T will also have a similar program called “AT&T NEXT” looks like T-Mobile has the big guys running scared. I have to say I’m also one one the people who switched from AT&T to T-Mobile and I couldn’t be happier. On my iPhone 5 with T-Mobile’s LTE coverage in the DFW area I’ve gotten consistent upload speeds of 38 to 42 Mbps by my work and 20 to 30 Mbps by my house.

enkay1

I wanna see how Legere responds to this and AT&T Next at the next press event.

http://epicfansite.com/ Moonbaseone EpicFansite

I LOVE Competition. Just this weekend I was getting weary of TMO as I was not getting Internet at home. So I contact tech support. Do the usual “trouble shooting”. I’m told there’s an issue in my area and to wait about 72 hours. Thinking, “Yeah Right”, I was already looking at alternatives, except ATT, as I JUST left them for TMO.

I come home today, and what do you know, Internet is working at home fine. So I’ll be staying with TMO. So far, I’m GLAD I left ATT

LOVE

Wow. impressed. thank you T Mobile.

macman37

Hats off to T-Mobile!! Now AT&T and Verizon have made similar plans in reaction to this great plan. Although all of the details for the Verizon VZ Edge plan has not been revealed yet, is there any information about how many times a Verizon subscriber can upgrade their device? Is it only limited to phones? AT&T’s “‘Next’ plan” allows their subscribers to upgrade their devices every 12 months; T-Mobile allows 2 upgrades/year – their customers can start upgrading after being enrolled in the program for 6 months; and Sprint, as of now, is still trying to create a similar plan. If Verizon does not put a cap on how many times their subscriber can upgrade their device, then this by far is the best plan because some customers are able to pay 50% or more of their device within 6 months.

macman37

quick correction on my post: Sprint, in reaction to T-Mobile’s Jump plan has reduced the price of their plans and guarantees unlimited data for life.

Oompa Loompa

Based on what I see, VZW customers must wait until 50% of their phone is paid off. TMO customers don’t. After the one time wait period, you can upgrade twice a year. That means you can buy an iphone in august, and then turn around in Sept and get that phone paid off and get an s4. The furthest you will have to wait is 12 months between upgrades if you upgrade twice in the same month. That still accounts to AT MOST having to pay off 50% of you phone, whereas VZW you have to pay off AT LEAST 50% before you can do anything. Still more expensive.

Noel

All these positive changes happening to Verizon and now Att should be credited to Tmobile. Many of us said it during Att attempt to gobble Tmo…that Tmo’s presence in the cellular space will be beneficial to customers on all carriers. See, it is bearing fruits already. Next..Tmo will lead the way with LTE A even tho they were the last of the major four to launch LTE.

RedGeminiPA

Too bad Verizon, AT&T and even Sprint have better coverage in areas that aren’t major metros.

I get why T-Mobile is focusing on major cities, but they’re leaving out a HUGE populous of potential customers in other decent-sized areas. Verizon has LTE in some hick towns around me, but T-Mobile’s network is still nothing but EDGE, in the largest city (Altoona, PA) between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg (4-hours drive across PA). There are two exceptions – State College, PA (PSU main) and Indiana, PA (IUP), both of which are at least 40 miles away from Altoona, PA. It’s nothing but EDGE for many, MANY miles between.

MuthaFuckinStephen

Copycat.

Jeff

First and foremost for any company to be successful and to retain customers,
need to be ethical and honest. In my personal experience with all these
carriers I think AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Virgin Mobile and cricket are some
of the most ethical companies. I would rather pay little bit more and deal with
honest organization.

If an organization have corrupt directors (John), who are giving hard working
employees job to his own buddies and senior leadership opt to close their eyes
means that organization is extremely corrupt. These types of organizations
can’t be successful in long run unless these organizations bring honest
leaders. If an organization can’t take care of their honest hard working
sincere employees, it will never take care of their customers.

This message is not for any specific organization, it is just meant to point
out some of the very good organizations have corrupt directors, who are not
only killing organization from inside out, they are also worse enemy to good
employees and customers. These great organizations should have processes to
protect their employees from these corrupt racist directors (John).

John, why don’t you hire Zimmerman and teach him few more of your tricks.

Todd

I think you have it backwards. He’s getting rid of all the senior leadership that has been dragging TMO down for years. Look at the turnaround so far. The results don’t lie. I say good riddance to all the directors and VPs who have just been sitting around while TMO lost millions of customers.

fsured

Nothing wrong with copy/paste your same comment from cnet but get real. Don’t say you are not directing your message to any specific organization and then call out “John” three times. He is running T-Mobile and the company follows his policies. You are saying T-Mobile is unethical and doesn’t treat employee’s properly. While the comfort level for many who work there has been busted, the company is turning around. Thats what happens when someone else is brought in to make changes and bring a company back from possible collapse. This is bringing back job security if customer growth is increasing.

Tmo1082

AT&T, Verizon and Sprint are ethical and honest compared to who… Enron?

Jose Hernandez

David, Lady, here we go again.

These posts are nothing but personal attacks on (John) and T-Mobile. this is just getting ridiculous now. We can’t read a post about AT&T without being subjected to this again?

Sal

Wow really buddy? You again? Every time I read an article about T-mobile, there you are, going after John Legere again and again. And it is always the same stuff about him being a corrupt director. Look, whatever personal vendetta you have against him, whether it is you losing your place of employment with T-mobile or him sleeping with your wife, take it up with him. Blow up his inbox but for God’s sake stop spamming every T-mobile article there is so we can read them in peace!!

VZ will have Edge and AT&T Next, which are both copies of TMO’s JUMP. T-Mobile needs to come out with a commercial that shows how they are just looking at TMO and following what they do.

Mark

I heard this morning that AT&T NEXT is also a no-contract, no-subsidy plan, so it’s essentially copying both phases of UNCarrier (although you only get 1 upgrade/year).

fsured

I think for the At&t plan you have to sign a 2yr contract still. What they are doing is allowing the cost of the phone to be split into 20mo payments with no down payment required. This is making the total monthly rates higher, depending on what phone you get. But the kicker is they are not lowering the monthly rate to the service plan. The customer still pays the same monthly rate as if they got the subsidized plan and then add to that the extra cost of phone installments. With this concept they will allow a upgrade after 1yr.

They will probably require a new 2yr agreement if you did upgrade the phone right after that 12mo mark. Still locking you in with contract. They have been increasing their prepaid options to combat T-Mobile’s no contract pricing.

mikey

Yes, with att you have to sign a 2 yr contract still. Basically first phone you get subsidized with a deposit, then after 12 months you can get the NEXT phone with no down payment but must make monthly payments higher than tmobiles are, but are still under contract. But you can continue this indefinitely, just like tmobiles, getting a new phone every 12 months with no down payment but having to pay any need repair fees for the phone. But main difference is you pay about $32 a month for a gs4 which gives them 384 for the phone before you trade it in, with tmobile you pay $20 a month after $99 down which ends up being only 339 if you wait to trade it in after a year. So tmobile is still the better value.

21stNow

You do not have to sign a new contract with the AT&T Next program.

Jai Nitai

So with ‘att next’ I get to pay $199 down for GS4 then if i want to get a new phone in 1 year then I also get to pay $32/mo for 20 months or $640. Is it then $199 + $640 =$839 for the privledge of getting a new device in one year. Is this acccurate?

mikey

You are almost right, first you get the subsidized phone which is $199 then 12 months later you can get a new device with $0 down and just pay the $32 a month for the next 12 months then you can trade it in again with $0 down but paying any applicable repair/warranty fees if necessary and pay the $32 monthly again on a new device. Or you can keep what you get same as Tmobile. Basically with both you are paying about half the price of the device before you can trade it in. With tmobile you pay a down payment which makes you reach the halfway mark quicker.

minioninnc

If you can’t lead, why not follow the UNcarrier.

Signed: T-Mobile

Jose Hernandez

Loved it, just loved it!!!

peralta61

Now just put it on the news papers all over the US

vrm

Both verizon and at & t LIKE this concept -

It actually reinforces carrier lock in via devices, a concept they both cling to and live by. No wonder they quickly ‘jumped’ on this aspect of tmobile’s plan. Also, at & t and verizon will be making even more money from this concept than they did before on the device.

mikey

And making more money from it then tmobile too. On a GS4 using att you end up paying $389 in monthly payments before you can trade it in, with tmobile if you go a whole year before trading up you only pay $339 including the deposit. All three have deductibles and repair fees to pay if phone is damaged.

TMO forcing change .. gotta like that BUT as someone mentioned .. it’ll likely only mean better things for ATT and VZ thus making the climb harder for TMO to establish themselves as a legitimate alternative.
hopefully VZ and ATT customers will think it’s too little too late .. and still turn their nose up at contracts.

21stNow

T-Mobile’s Jump, AT&T’s Next and VZW’s Edge are all non-contract plans. With AT&T, you are paying off the device over 20 months if you choose to keep it instead of getting a new device vs. T-Mobile spreads out the payments over 24 months. Verizon Wireless’ details aren’t clear yet but so far, there seems to be very little difference in the plans.

This is part of the reason that I said that T-Mobile should have hit hard on the pricing difference early on in the marketing, because that is the one area that AT&T and VZW will not compete with T-Mobile on. All other offerings (cough*gimmicks*cough) can be duplicated easily.

My personal opinion is that all four major carriers got together and planned this a while ago and that this is collusion at its finest.

http://about.me/daylondeon Deacon

i didn’t mean contracts on the “jump, next etc” plans .. just contracts in general still exist on att and vz.

Spanky

Contracts still exist on T-Mobile as well. All 3rd party retailers still sell Classic Plans.

http://about.me/daylondeon Deacon

3rd party retailers have nothing to do with TMO .. those are contracts between you and the 3rd party .. technically yes TMO honors them but still .. “corporate” TMO isnt contract bound anymore.

thepanttherlady

Verizon and now AT&T have both had since John Legere brought this idea up back in March to work on their own offerings of an “upgrade club”. I wouldn’t doubt they took a wait and see approach like they have with everything else T-Mobile is changing these days. Glad to be part of the UnCarrier!

Spanky

The above screen shot indicates that Verizon has been working on it since Q4 2012.

Laki

With AT&T and VRZ you still locked into a contract and the over all price of the phone is still built into the plan. The plan never changed. So basically I am going to be paying X amount for the subsidized phone plus the monthly installment. Please Correct me If I am of base here.

thepanttherlady

The screen shot above indicates there is no service contract for this program but you are correct. There is no indication the plan prices have changed.

With the statement of being able to upgrade once 50% of the phone has been paid off, I would think there is no subsidy. Without more details it’s difficult to know whether this will be beneficial or not.

Scott

Based on the the limited info here, I interpreted this the same way. If you want the coverage that Verizon offers and don’t have a specific reason to stay out of a contract, it’s actually financially imprudent to NOT purchase a subsidized device.

21stNow

There is no contract with the AT&T Next plan, either.

Casey Grim

AT&T and VRZ are just trying to copy T-Mobile as they can’t think of there own ways to cut cost and offer customers early upgrades.

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